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Back to Basics: Street Maintenance

The thousands of miles of streets in the City of Portland comprise an asset worth nearly $5 billion. The Portland Bureau of Transportation is committed to maintaining city streets that were built to city standards. The City’s maintenance program for 2013-14 intends to maintain more than 100 lane miles of city streets with a variety of treatments that will extend the life of these assets. With a new policy approved by the City Council, the Bureau plans to work on residential streets for the first time in four years.

These maps show where the City plans to conduct maintenance this year. Dates, times, locations are all approximate and subject to change based on weather and other factors. This is not a guarantee of work to be performed.

August 2013 update: The Back to Basics program maintained nearly 14 lane miles of city streets in July – more than double the rate of work performed in July in recent years. It is on pace to more than triple the August rate.

January 2014 update: The program has completed 82 miles towards the goal of 100 miles for the fiscal year ending June 30, 2014. That is 53 lane miles of streets treated with fog seal and 24 lane miles of paving.

Click on map to view and download PDF. To search by street name, first save to desktop.

Click on map to view and download PDF. To search by street name, first save to desktop.

Maintenance by type of work

The City uses a variety of treatments to maintain streets. Some streets need the surface to be ground and repaved. Many need simple sealing of cracks and a coat of sealant on top to extend the life of the surface. Streets with small but acute damage require base repairs, work that requires replacement of material below the street’s surface. These maps show where the City plans to use these treatments through June 2014.

Click on map to view and download PDF. To search by street name, first save to desktop.

Grinding and paving work occurs on high-traffic streets. If there are no noticeable base or subgrade failures but the existing surface is exhibiting extensive cracking, roughness or rutting, the road is ground down and replaced with up to two inches of new asphalt. Schedules are subject to change and all work is weather dependant. Maintenance crews will notify residents in the days before work is to be done.

Click on map to view and download PDF.To search by street name, first save to desktop.

Crack and fog sealing are performed on low-traffic residential streets. Crack sealing is performed first. Crews often need to revisit a site at a later date to conduct fog sealing. The list of streets below shows an expected timeframe for crack sealing that may be different than the timeframe for fog sealing. These maps show where the City plans to perform this work through June 2014. Schedules are subject to change and all work is weather dependant. Maintenance crews will notify residents in the days before work is to be done.

Click on map to view and download PDF. To search by street name, first save to desktop.

Base repair is a localized treatment method used to remove and replace both the base and the surface layers of a failed section of the road. Base repair is an isolated re-build that replaces only a particular area or bad section of the road that needs repair. A failed section of the roadway is cut out and then replaced with new base material and asphalt.